"They get to see me a lot at Oregon, so I told them this is Kyle's last year. Spend it with him." E.J. Singler said.

Kyle Singler said Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski approached him last year about a possible homecoming game. The game was arranged when Singler said he'd like to play against his brother.

A large contingent from Medford is expected to make the 275-mile drive to Portland to watch the Singler showdown.

"I might have some early jitters, but it's not going to be all about myself. It's about Oregon and Duke," Kyle Singler said.

Singler calls the 6-6, 210-pound E.J. "one of my best friends, if not my best friend." But they're also brothers, which means it wasn't always friendly growing up.

"He would probably say I bullied him around a little, but that's the job of an older brother," Singler said.

Singler said their relationship changed for the better when they played together for two years at South Medford.

Singler doesn't regret leaving the state of Oregon for Duke, where he has a four-year career average of 15.8 points and 6.8 rebounds. His relationship with Krzyzewski "has always been good," Singler said.

"I know what he expects from me, and he knows what I expect from him," he said. "There's not one day where he's not giving me his best."

The game is a matchup of teams in decidedly different places.

Duke is coming off a national championship, and looking every bit the part of a team ready to repeat. The Blue Devils are 5-0 and coming off an 82-68 win over No. 4 Kansas State. Oregon is 4-1, but clearly rebuilding under first-year coach Dana Altman. The Ducks have yet to play a team anywhere close to the caliber of Duke.

Asked if he's worried Duke will run the Ducks out of the Rose Garden, E.J. Singler said "We can't look at it that they're going to kill us. That's not going to do anything for us. If we play as a team, I think we have a good chance of sticking with them."

Altman said he'll have some brief words of advice for E.J. before the game.

"E.J. I'm sure will be excited. I'll just tell E.J. to take a deep breath, try to relax a little bit and play his tail off," Altman said.